Pet Project
by Zeil
Summary: Just your adverage slashy fic about some patient and why House is the way he is... Yes I'm actually atempting it...


**Disclaimer: Some one not me owns them...**

**Notes: **I'm not sure where its going and I don't if I'lll up date so read at own peril. I'm thingking about making the first chapter into its own drabble though...

**Pet Project**

**Prologue**

_Push_

Sugar, Honey, Ice, Tea

She's like Mars rocks he's decided, their doctor Cameron, she looks soft and crumbly, but she's not... though squeeze her hard enough and you will get a few drops. Foreman, definitely like a blowfish, all huffy and puffy and prickly when he's aggravated and so easily so. Wilson of course for all his proper-ness is like a rusty bear trap, essentially harmless, until you whack it with a mallet, then the reaction is sharp, grating... painful. Cuddy of course is something close to caramel, all hard cutting corners when she's cold, then she throes and is all soft and sweet and syrupy. Patients, lemmings all of them, enough said really...

Chase though is something he can't define yet, his father has the overbearing edge of someone that knows their child, though privileged is at the bottom of the class. Only Chase isn't, he's brighter then the other two, sharp, more awake to the world. He's sweet and slushy, big eyes and little boy haircut. He's layers of frosting wrapped around sponge cake. Delicate and light, like he's nothing but smoke and air. Tears pool always when he's upset and that pretty little mouth trembles slightly and if that was all then House would call him a fairy or nymph and call it a day. Except for then that pert mouth sets firmly and the tears never ever fall, blinked away furiously and the boy who seems to be only sugar and light has a sharp bit of metal to him. So House keeps searching, looking and cataloguing all those different interlocking sides. It occurs to him very briefly that perhaps everyone he knows is like this too and he's just missed it... Then the blonde does something else and he's distracted again.

He's ice and frost and nothing else. Chase is almost certain of it. He's looked at it from every angle and can't come up with anything contradictory. He use to think it was just a shell, an icy layer that he put on to keep everyone at arms length. Chase had understood that because the more you let people in the more it hurts when you remove them, or when they remove themselves.

Had thought that if something pressed hard enough it'd crack, fall away in cold shards. But Chase has learnt through experience that although a lot of things can chip off pieces, nothing can make it shatter... Because the others cold from the inside out, the ice isn't something around him it is him... He's ice and frost and nothing else... Chase just can't figure out why.

**Chapter One**

_Look But Don't Touch_

Free will, its like butterfly wings. Once touched they never get off the ground.

"So was it weird?" Foreman asks.

"It was a little awkward at points." Cameron explains.

"But it wasn't too bad." She frowned.

"So it was like a date?"

"Yeah, except the date part." Allison bit back on a smile. Chase looked up briefly from his book to study the two in front of him.

"So it wasn't creepy... you know being out with House..." Foreman implored.

"No, no... no more so then it is just being around him in general." Cameron swallowed.

"He didn't do anything strange?" House outside of hospital hours was something of a novelty for Foreman, something of great interest.

"Strange?" Foreman shrugged.

"I just can't picture House outside of a hospital, well actually I can but its a lot like monkeys using tools for the first time." Cameron held back yet another strangled giggle.

"Well I don't fling poo at people if that's what you think!" House grumbled from behind them. The two in front jumped visibly and then both tried to hide it. Chase didn't even so much as flinch, barely even registered the others presence.

"Doctor Chase although it is thrilling to finally have some hard proof that you can in fact read it would be nice if you could in fact join the rest of us here at work." House snarked, watching chase close the book and sit it aside casually. House made a mental note to steal it if he could... Not only would it rile the duckling up, but secretly he was intrigued. It was more like a manuscript then a book, big with a plain red card cover. House supposed in the grand scheme of things he could just ask what had the other so enthralled, but there would be no fun in that... No red cheeks and withering glances.

House turned to the diagnosis board and scrubbed it clean, taking care to squeak and squeal the eraser as much as possible. Sadly when he turned back around only foreman looked terribly upset, the other two had looks of weathering forbearance plastered on.

**Today's Menu**. He wrote up and underlined. Careful to avoid bumping his broken fingers. It was a hard trick, managing two fractured fingers and his half numb leg. The shear mechanics of it were mind-boggling, like a clown car really. The math just didn't work.

Six year old female

Temperature of 110

Rash and welts

Weight-loss of two kilos

Vomiting, diarrhoea

**Serve With A Lovely Side Of.**

Breathing problems

Blocked sinuses

Violent coughing fits

"Charming." Foreman says for the room a large.

"And here's kicker, Sister died of similar symptoms almost a decade ago." House finished with flourish.

"What of?" Cameron queried. House shrugged.

"Never determined."

"What she died and they all just called it a day?" Chase asked with disgust.

"Don't look so crest fallen..." house scolded, because the second you let one of them get away with caring they were all bursting out into tears. Wanting their mummies and all that.

"They may not have worked out what killed the sister, but they had an idea what didn't. For instance they ruled out;..." House once more scribed on the board.

**Sister:**

Poisons and toxins

Allergies

All other household sicknesses

"Great that narrows it." Foreman muttered and was rewarded with a duster flying at his head.

"Hey..."

"Don't be an idiot." House snapped.

"And I won't have to keep you on your toes..." This earned him a rather satisfying prickled look.

"The answer is right in front of you." He prompted.

'We need to test for and with stuff that they didn't have a decade ago." Chase offered.

"Well I'm impressed." House flattered and Chase, despite himself looked a little pleased.

"Not only can our little Australian read, but he can think too... Who knew." House teased and watched the pleased look turn to a slightly sour one.

"Oh eat me." Chase said in a rare moment of petulance.

"Sorry never touch junk food." House flicked back. Chase stuck his tongue out without thinking.

"No sorry Chase, I won't suck your tongue either." This drew a hot little blush and Chase's eye skittered about the room as Foreman and Cameron snickered gently.

House turned back to the board and the ducklings waited patiently. He turned back a moment later.

"Well what are you all still doing here?" House bit gruffly, play time obviously over.

"What are we supposed to do?" Foreman asked quickly.

"My dear boy if you can't work that out by yourself then what the hell are you doing here?" House ruffled, tried of just teasing the Aussie. Foreman when to bite back.

"Someone should exam her, take blood, skin scrapings. That kind of thing." Chase interrupted, sensing a fight approaching.

"Good you do that!" House smirked.

"You two go check through the sisters med records." He ordered.

"But you already have?" Cameron frowned.

"Yes... But I want you to do it. That way if anything's missed it's your faults..." Foreman looked on the verge of bursting a blood vessel when they all filed out. House hid the real smile until they were gone down the hall. It widened when he realised that Chase's book was still sitting on the seat... His duckling really would never learn...


End file.
